Elucidation of the Life-cycle of Fasciola hepatica

Abstract

I AGREE with H. S. Jefferies that historical accuracy is desirable and that the credit for scientific discovery should go where it is deserved. Parasitology owes much to the work of Steenstrup, who demonstrated the ‘alternation of generations’ which occurs in the lives of some invertebrate animals¹. This expression was first used in 1819, however, by the Franco-German poet and naturalist, Louis Adelaide de Chamisso, in regard to the life-cycle of the pelagic tunicates known as salps, but the young Danish zoologists showed that it applies to the life-cycles of some cœlenterates, trematodes and other invertebrate animals as well. Valuable discoveries were made also by other zoologists, and some of these were mentioned in Chapter 16 and elsewhere in my book², and others have since been indicated by E. G. Reinhard, with special reference to the life-cycle of Fasciola hepatica ³.